Imagine biking or walking over San Diego Bay on a path suspended in an enclosed tube nearly 200 feet above the water.

Del Mar architect Lew Dominy has held that vision since the 1980s and got it championed by a legislative candidate. The candidate lost and the dream went dormant.

Now, Dominy’s idea for the pedestrian and cycling pathway hanging from the San Diego-Coronado Bridge has reawakened, thanks to San Diego County Supervisor Greg Cox, who won approval from fellow supervisors Tuesday to spend $75,000 to study the concept.

“We have a lot more questions than answers right now,” Cox said Monday. “By completing this initial study, we’ll have a lot better idea of the potential and the cost.”

Yes
79% (4667)

No
21% (1208)

Cox is allocating the study money from the $1 million fund each supervisor controls to make what are called Neighborhood Reinvestment Program grants. The money is going to transportation planners at the San Diego Association of Governments.

The study will examine whether the nearly half-century-old bridge has sufficient structural and seismic integrity to support an attached pathway. It also would look at public safety and emergency response issues and potential concerns from the Navy, which needs about 200 feet clearance for ship antennas to pass beneath the bridge.

When he was a young architect, the 70-year-old Dominy worked with the bridge’s principal architect, Robert Mosher, and as a result had access to the bridge’s drawings. During one of the occasional bridge openings to cyclists, who are normally prohibited from crossing the bridge as are pedestrians, the idea for a tube began to gel.

“We thought this would be neat,” said Dominy, an avid cyclist. “So I took out the drawings and started looking at how to do this.”

Original plans for the bridge called for a pedestrian lane, but they were shelved.

Dominy said he believes the tube could become an international landmark, comparing to Seattle’s Space Needle and St. Louis’s Gateway Arch.

“It could become something iconic for San Diego,” he said. “I think if we can get the vision out there and what this might do for the city, there’s a good chance it could happen.”

Dominy got his idea to Cox through county Recorder/Assessor/Clerk Ernie Dronenburg, and the supervisor raised it during a public address on the state of the county. Cox said the tube also could be a new link to Coronado from the mostly completed 24-mile Bayshore Bikeway, one of the most popular and heavily used cycling routes in the region.

“This could be an exciting and unique opportunity that would give us a connection to Coronado and Barrio Logan,” he said, adding it could reduce traffic flowing into Coronado Navy facilities with people choosing to cycle rather than drive to work.

While the idea has cyclist support, Cox said concerns include how to reach someone injured or stricken by a heart attack.

“I call it fatal-flaw study,” he said.

While there’s no firm number for a construction cost, Cox said he knows of potential donors willing make significant contributions to building the pathway.